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The Gentlemen of Hollinger

David Radler's testimony in the Conrad Black trial summoned up memories of many of the great classic turncoats, like Benedict Arnold and Judas Iscariot. But it's the dynamic between the betrayer and the betrayed that's especially interesting here, which is why the relationship between Brutus and Cassius in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar is so appropriate.

David Radler's testimony in the Conrad Black trial summoned up memories of many of the great classic turncoats, like Benedict Arnold and Judas Iscariot. But it's the dynamic between the betrayer and the betrayed that's especially interesting here, which is why the relationship between Brutus and Cassius in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar is so appropriate.

Picture Black as the patrician, lofty Brutus and Radler as the more proletarian, practical Cassius. Imagine them meeting outside the courtroom in Chicago, with Radler having the chutzpah to start in a confrontational mode. A surprising portion of the following scene is taken pretty much verbatim from Act IV, Scene 3 of Julius Caesar.

RADLER Most noble Conrad, you have done me wrong.

BLACK Judge me, you gods! Wrong I mine enemies?

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And, if not so, how should I wrong my David?

RADLER Conrad, this sober form of yours hides wrongs;

And when you do them –

BLACK David, be content.

Speak your griefs softly: I do know you well.

Before the eyes of these reporters here,

Who should perceive nothing but love from us,

Let us not wrangle: bid them move away;

When they are gone, you may enlarge your griefs,

And I will give you audience.

RADLER Bid my attorneys lead these jackals off

A little from this ground.

BLACK Greenspan, do you the like; and let no man

Return till we have done our conference.

(The two are alone.)

RADLER That you have wrong'd me doth appear in this:

You did prefer the counsel of Dan Colson

When he first joined the Daily Telegraph;

Wherein my memos, all my good advice

For saving Ravelston were slighted off.

BLACK You wronged yourself to write in such a case.

RADLER In such a time as this it is not meet

That every nice offence should bear your comment.

BLACK Let me tell you, David, you yourself

Are much condemn'd to have an itching palm;

To sell and mart your offices for gold

To undeservers.

RADLER I an itching palm!

You know that you are Conrad that speaks this,

Or, by the gods, this speech were else your last.

BLACK The name of Radler honours this corruption,

And chastisement doth therefore hide his head.

RADLER Chastisement!

BLACK Remember all our years with Hollinger:

Those papers we did bleed for money's sake?

What well-staffed newsroom did we partners slash,

If not for profit? What, shall we now

Contaminate our legacy of lies

And sell the mighty space of our large egos

To spend a year or two less behind bars?

I had rather be a dog, and bay the moon,

Than be such a miscreant.

RADLER Black, bay not me;

I'll not endure it: you forget yourself,

To hedge me in; I am a businessman

Older in practise, abler than yourself

To make conditions.

BLACK Go to; you are not, Radler.

RADLER I am.

BLACK I say you are not.

RADLER Urge me no more, I shall forget myself;

Have mind upon your health, tempt me no further.

BLACK Away, slight man!

RADLER Is't possible?

BLACK Hear me, for I will speak.

Must I give way and room to your rash choler?

Shall I be frighted when a turncoat stares?

RADLER O ye gods, ye gods! must I endure all this?

BLACK All this! ay, more: fret till your proud heart break;

Go show the world how treacherous you are,

And make your lawyers tremble. Must I budge?

Must I observe you? must I stand and crouch

Under your shifty humour? By the gods

You shall digest the venom of your lies,

Though it do split you; for, from this day forth,

I'll use you for my mirth, yea, for my laughter,

When you are waspish.

RADLER Is it come to this?

BLACK You say you are a better businessman:

Let it appear so; make your vaunting true,

And it shall please me well: for mine own part,

I shall be glad to learn of noble men.

RADLER You wrong me every way; you wrong me, Black;

I said, an elder businessman, not better:

Did I say `better'?

BLACK If you did, I care not.

RADLER Do not presume too much upon my love;

I may do that I shall be sorry for.

BLACK You have done that you should be sorry for.

There is no terror, Radler in your threats,

For I am arm'd so strong in honesty

That they pass by me as the idle wind,

Which I respect not.

The day that Conrad Black betrays his friends,

Be ready, gods, with all your thunderbolts;

Dash him to pieces!

RADLER I betrayed you not.

BLACK You did.

RADLER A friend should bear his friend's infirmities,

But Conrad makes mine greater than they are.

BLACK I do not, till you practise them on me.

RADLER You love me not.

BLACK I do not like your faults.

RADLER A friendly eye could never see such faults.

BLACK A flatterer's would not, though they do appear

As huge as high Olympus.

RADLER Come, all you courts and prosecutors, come,

Revenge yourselves alone on Radler,

For Radler is aweary of the world;

Hated by one he loves; all his faults observed,

Set in a note-book, learn'd, and conn'd by rote,

To cast into my teeth. O, I could weep

My spirit from mine eyes! Hath Radler lived

To be but mirth and laughter to his Conrad,

When grief, and blood ill-temper'd, vexeth him?

BLACK When I spoke that, I was ill-temper'd too.

RADLER Do you confess so much? Give me your hand.

BLACK And my heart too.

(At this point in this fictional version, they embrace – in a manly fashion – vowing to start their careers together again, after this whole affair has settled down. What would actually happen if the two men met again might be closer to the final scene of Titus Andronicus, where a mad despot gets revenge on someone who betrayed him by baking her children into a pie. But that's another story ...)

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